Creating A "Cabinet Of Invisible Counselors"

This is branched off from Pazuzu’s thread about Ascended Masters & Entities.

The cabinet idea is a version of the question “If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?” - and it’s designed to get you the benefits of some of the greatest minds in history, there to give their undivided attention to your own questions and problems.

I think it’s especially useful to magicians, whose problems can’t always be discussed with the people in our lives, and it also builds up your visualisation skills.

Like most lonely kids, I developed a good imagination, and I had a fantasy life going on as a child where I’d insert myself into adventures I read about in books, and that only intensified when I got into my teens, so I’m used to running an imaginary “version” of someone - for example daydreaming about meeting my pin-ups as a teenager, imagining what they’d say, how they’d act, etc. and I always kept it as close to reality as possible - I think most of us can do that when lust is involved!

Usually the person I was attracted to was the character played by an actor, and not the actor themselves, so I’d have to find a believable way to get myself into their world and also understand as much as possible about the character so I could create the most authentic-feeling imaginary scenarios.

Later on I developed various imaginary alternate-worlds around my fictional heart-throbs that were populated by other people as well, and I always kept those other characters as authentic as I could, often based loosely on another fictional character, and I’d make sure to fully flesh them out with likes, dislikes, everything.

As I got older, I found I could sometimes get insights by discussing a version of my problems with these people, so by then it was about far more than just idle sensual daydreaming, and had become a beneficial therapuetic and insight-laden activity.

I got really serious about this side of my imagination after re-reading all Nap. Hill’s works including Think And Grow Rich in summer 2012, and his mention of his Cabinet of Invisible Counselors got me thinking that I wanted the same for myself!

As I pondered who to add (politicians and so on don’t really do it for me) I realised that I really like David Neagle, and his consultancy fees are really out of my league for 1-2-1 stuff right now.

(By the way he’s not like a pin-up or anything, I just really like his style - his stuff is based on The Kybalion and some of his articles and videos have been life-changing.)

I also realised I really like talking on the phone and that for me, this Cabinet idea would work better as being able to have “phone calls” with my counselors, because I could focus better, not have to imagine any visuals or anything that would take up mental space, and I could also have a conversation going on whilst, for example, washing-up or cooking - times when my mind often wanders and hits on new ideas - I just ahem have it on “speakerphone” on the worktop at that time. :wink:

So I bought a deactivated mobile phone (I have no idea why they’re even sold, but it was perfect for me - £3), and changed the display image to a little printout of The Magician (Rider-Waite version) and I use this to “call” my Virtual David, and the two other people I’ve kind of added to my list of imaginary friends.

One’s a counsellor I was seeing whose style was very insightful, the other’s a friend whose working hours mean we don’t get to talk that often - and of course the advantage is I can always talk to these people about anything, at any time of the day or night, without wondering what they’ll think of me, or whether they’ll keep it to themselves!

The phone’s a useful “prop” because it stops my mind from wandering, and it keeps these sessions a bit more structured - I’m either doing this, or not doing it, but there’s no blurring of lines, it makes a proper “session” out of it all.

I’m also certain this process is why I have zero doubt these days that I’m actually speaking to spirits when I do various magickal works that use telepathic communication, and not just artefacts of my own imagination - aside from results, I actually know what imaginary friends act like, and it’s nothing like real spirits, so that’s been another useful side-effect.

So, for example, if something troubles me, I grab the phone, “speed dial” it (just to add to the immersion) and then there’s my virtual buddy all lined up, already briefed on the situation, and ready to talk to me about it.

It maybe sounds crazy but it’s yielded some solid gold insights into real problems I was struggling with, and those insights, when I boiled them down to the basic principles, have then given me good information I’ve used in other areas, for example I have a very good idea now what my particular triggers are for certain emotions, and when something upsets me or annoys me I can check it against that list before deciding what to do, so I’m not just repeating some pattern of unexamined reactions.

I keep notes of any major insights, and I think it’s made me a stronger person and less a creature of set mental habits, which are a weakness - you’ve basically let the world “train you” like a performing dog to react to certain stimuli if you don’t examine those habits from time to time, and this is the most powerful tool in my armoury for doing that.

I believe a person can be batshit crazy, or at least a neurotic mess, and still be a powerful magician, but it’s not the happiest way to live, and why settle for second best? I’ve always wanted to perfect myself in every way.

Some version of this would probably be adaptable to most people’s needs, especially if, like me, you often have problems that your everyday world people can’t help with, or stuff you wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing with someone who might think it was so “weird” they just have to share it for the laugh-factor.

So, that’s how I do it - there are multiple ways to run “invisible counselors” - you could have a rosewood table in a boardroom overlooking Manhattan, where you sit at the head of the table while they offer up their expertise, you could meet them in the Parthenon over a picnic-spread of lush food and drinks, there are NO limits to the scenario or interface you choose - and add whoever you want, just try and keep them authentic because the more of the real person you bring to it, the higher the quality of their advice will be!

Here’s a “how to” guide, that has the relevant stuff excerpted from Nap. Hill’s books and also some background on how it works: The Cabinet of Invisible Counselors - artofmanliness.com.

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Aaand by the way, another reason to have these amazing people in your life talking to you as though your dreams matter and your goals are achievable, is because so often when we’re younger, we had so many people trying to force their own agenda onto us by forcibly removing our own, or at least belittling it, and that often leaves residual doubts.

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The phone’s actually a pretty smart prop as like you say, it negates the whole inner vision or need for visualization entirely, I had never thought of that! Unfortunately I’m rather visually minded myself, I doubt it would flow well with me since I’m so anal with having my cake and eating it :slight_smile: But for some this would be a much better step up from say, Quija or a pendulum or needing to meditate 3 hours before the “master” shows up. It makes the mind the instrument of possibility and relegates the physical prop to a permission slip, which I think is a proper step to being able to do this stuff while sitting on the toilet (which will test your comfort zone in entirely new ways I might add XD).

Anyway, I don’t think this weird or nutty at all. It doesn’t just sound extremely healthy for people who can’t find certain interactions in the physical experience, it’s also in my not so modest opinion a method to work with the higher self and experience the greater potential of your being. I noticed you have a tendency to call this imagination and imaginary and I’d advise you to rethink that, just because something cannot penetrate the “shared reality” experience or lacks the approval of so-called established people doesn’t mean its not real. Just look at an egregore (such an ugly word…) for example, it starts out a simple idea without sustenance, but over time if we apply our will and intent onto it, it can turn into a living entity that can, if we truly will it and work consciously influence not just events but even physical objects. Is there really a limit to who or what we can will into existence on the mental levels? I sincerely doubt it.

I myself use this technique a lot but instead of using known people I search for traits and characteristics and imbue those into manifestation bases, and then not just start a dialogue but also have the ability to explore that persona. It soon becomes a complicated game, because at what point will the created thoughtform say “I’d rather not have you imbue my consciousness with this and that concept - it doesn’t fit me”? At what moment will you no longer be able to comfortably even use the word thoughtform for a consciousness that wakes you up in the morning because you forgot to set your alarm? There are few things more interesting or fun than this type of work in my opinion, the pinnacle of creation for me is applied consciousness :slight_smile:

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Janeway did that with Davinci all the time
Star trek voyager- mad sea dog´s the Portuguese

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Yeah, that just happened yesterday - I was asleep for three or four hours when Virtual David Neagle jumped into my dream and started talking to me about stuff that then (when I got up, grabbed the fake phone and went through the usual routine) carried on well into waking, giving the dog some food, having a cup of tea… he made some really good points about a lot of things that I’ve spent most of this morning reviewing, and seen where he stopped me kind of sleepwalking into repeating an old pattern that wouldn’t be helpful to my present-day goals.

It was incredibly useful and insightful, and yet arguably all a construct of my own mind, based on my study of the works of a man I’ve never met.

Have I created a David Neagle personality inside my own mind that’s capable of over-riding a standard and random dream (it started out with me in a laundry back where I lived a few years ago), then of waking me up halfway through it, and giving me insights that don’t belong in Eva’s head automatically? Or was it some mystical cloud of the real man’s higher consciousness permeating my mind, which was attuned to receive his ideas because I respect him so damned much? I don’t really care! :wink:

“Real” and “imagined in your head” are sometimes blurry anyway in magick, but this example was so striking I had to share - what counts for me these days is what works, and this experiment has consistantly delivered the goods.

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Lovely isn’t it? The cool thing is that the more you prove the concept to yourself, the more your subconscious allows this to happen in greater significance and frequency (because our idea of “it’s not real” is a huge dampener).

I like to believe that “as above, so below” applies to everything and as such view what is in the mind the same as outside the mind. So where does your intent to re-create the consciousness of Naegle end and the infusion of what he was at his peak start? I think they dance a merry dance together and the more you play with it and allow it to grow, the more you’ll see the lines blurring. Keep us updated please :wink:

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I will!

Poor guy… hope he never finds this forum, I’d be totally horrified.

Anyway, the one in my dream was kinda spacey, as in, addressing the overlap between the situation in that dream, and in my current life with this lady I know (it’s a thing to do with a pattern I repeat at work) - that was kind of metaphorical, but then when I woke up from it, I was still in place of understanding the importance of this insight, so I got onto the phone I bought and then it was very obvious that it was my internal Virtual David that took over…

BUT, the fact is that intelligence intervened to turn a random dream into a lecture and then somehow woke me up from REM sleep, without horror or fright or the usual stuff that wakes people up from nightmares, which was pretty cool.

I’ve added a Virtual Deanna Troi since I last posted, she asks me how I FEEL about certain things, which is actually a useful counterbalance to my existing “team” of imaginary buddies - she’s helped me troubleshoot a few things and also proved that a fictional character can serve as well as a “real” person." :wink:

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Okay froods, call up Monsieur Hercule Poirot - a friend of mine who’s too crazy for most forums asked me to talk to the fictional character of my choice, I chose Poirot because I got his DVDs as a gift recently (TV series with David Suchet).

Poirot is AMAZING - look up Suchet’s representation (there’s got to be some stuff on YT) and walk into his parlour, and ask ze questions which are perplexing you, or otherwise take a tisane with the number one mind in all Europe…

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Update: these people are more real than we think.

We recently watched the TV series, Hannibal, and it’s as good as everyone said - I was impressed by Lecter’s intellect, so briefly invited him to my “Cabinet.”

The result was little short of a disaster, in that he only wanted to advise me to do things which were patently against my own best interests, to kind of wallow around in the darkest, most primal mud of my own psyche, and in no time whatsoever he had begun attempting to manipulate me into actions that seemed to have no purpose except serve his agenda - even though he’s not “real” (this was not an evocation of the character’s egregore, it was a creative act).

So, I withdrew my energy from him and banned him from my cabinet - permanently!

But this was at least a useful demonstration that these beings are very much imbued with the “life force” of their character, and can’t be edited and amended lightly. This knowledge was very useful, and worth the aborted experiment.

I’ll be sticking with Poirot for the brains of the operation - he’s sweet, slightly flirtatious, and altogether not a manipulative psychopath! :slight_smile:

(I know, I know - in other news, water still wet. Duh! :smiley: )

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Thank you for this

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Just bumping this in case it;s useful for newer members, thinking outside the box of what’s “real” and what’s not is always useful IMO… :smiley:

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I kinda want to evoke Goku or a sexy big tiddy anime waifu and just talk about fighting and sexx. Lol. Or anything else

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Care to give a few of the defining characteristics, IYO, that separate communication with imaginary friends from communication with spirits? :slightly_smiling_face:

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Feel is different, and where I posted that one of these evolved, the feel changed slightly; other differences are the quality of response, manifesting in an unexpected form (especially on first evocation), the quality of manifestation, ability to pass information I am not even subconsciously aware of… but mostly feel.

Like the difference between a real and a fake pearl, they may look the same to someone who doesn’t know, but interaction is like “the tooth test.” Or the difference in resolution and complexity between a 16-colour gif and a high-resolution jpg, or a tiff.

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This type of work is done in NLP quite a bit, as a combination of supraluminal communication, and trance possession for learning new skills.

Milton Erickson used this technique to do shaktipat, where he taught his students to do Ericksonian hypnosis by going into their minds and doing the work from inside of their heads. One student was so impacted by the trancework and impression of Erickson on his mind that he began answering questions only Erickson knew the answer to, and even developed a limp (Milton Erickson suffered from polio as a child, which left him limping his entire life).

Drs. Vladimir Raikov and Georgi Lozanov used this somnambulist hypnotic technique to teach Soviet university students how to do high-level performance events such as the Olympics and International Tchaikovsky Competitions in the 60s and 70s.

The technique is fully explained as the Carsons’ CIA Pattern, which expands out to become John Overdurf’s Deep Trance Identification technique.

Napoleon Hill combined the Cabinet of Invisible Counselors within, with the Master Mind Alliance.

The technique is very powerful, and it really works.

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You’ve just given me an interesting idea for an experiment there, thanks! :+1:

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I gave this a try today with an old phone because I really like the idea. I felt a bit awkward even though I was alone but I’m gonna stick to it and see how it goes.

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Yeah I usually feel that way for the first few seconds even now, and I posted this! :laughing:

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I ought to give this another shot. Im a fan of Napoleon Hill and Think and grow rich so i belive in the mans mind. Jist gotta use this technique

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Oh Titan.

Marcus Aurelius in his meditations mentions, asking how a great man would react to situations, and then carries the task out as they would.

Fun fact: I just had a full blown, argument breakout discussing what is real and imaginary. I got very fed up with my family and immediately asked myself how would Marcus React to this?

I was doing a similar thing but I would do it with those close to me, sad to say but sometimes those people have neurotic tendencies. As such when Id ask a question the answers sometimes came in screaming with negativity, the past couple of month I was convinced I was crazy since every time one of these voices said something I would feel awful and negative.
Luckily I never accepted any psychiatric label and continued to pursue answers.
Sometimes the solution is write before your eyes but you must be led to sullied water in order to recognize the spring water pond two feet from your house.
Ave Lucifer.

Ill be trying out both the cell phone call and dinner table method.
Will report back after some time and experience :slight_smile:

Image result for marcus aurelius quotes

I knew how to do this method but I felt compelled to come back to this post and give myself a refresher and deeper study.

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